Kaduna State (map) is located in north-central Nigeria.

“Our country, entrusted to us by God has been consumed by forces of darkness and death,” the state’s bishops said in a statement. “We also call on religious leaders to stand together in their total condemnation of this evil.”

“Church leaders have been kidnapped, tortured and in some cases, gruesomely murdered for no reason other than that they bear the Cross of Christ,” the bishops added, according to The Sun, which is based in Lagos. “The perpetrators of these evils are constantly appealing to the religion of Islam to validate their criminality.”